Here comes the weekend...

Taking it 'easy' this weekend -- hope the weather warms up for some garden work, though! It was nice and sunshiney out yesterday, but the wind was too cold to do much outside. Puck came through her surgery just fine -- she curled up in a ball on the couch for most of the day yesterday. She did scare us a little by going outside and disappearing for an hour after dark -- but one of the other dogs went out and retrieved her.

Kim at Knitten-kittens, I can't comment on your blog anymore :o( The number verification fails every time :o( Still reading though.


'Counsel from Fox' 03/15/2007 12 noon


I am making some progress on this wool 'shawl.'
It will be a gift for someone in November.

Mark took some more close-up pictures of the Singer that turned out wonderful. We were looking at how it actually worked. He also figured out the bobbin winder! The little kit of odds and ends the seller gave us had two different kinds of bobbins in it -- I was trying to use the winder with the wrong type.


The bobbin loop coming up.


The bobbin in its 'bullet-like' case.

Keeping busy with the Ebay store, knitting rabbits, working on my dream bag weaving... there is a lot going on here. My best friend from high school called last night and we had a good talk, also wished her a belated happy birthday from last week.

Pink Geranium

I have a real fondness for geraniums, have since the first batch I had raised from seed back in high school. When we were shopping for garden seeds the other day, this beautiful specimen came home with us ;o)


Click to enlarge - you can even see the little hairs on the stems in this picture.



Geraniums are one of those plants that have wonderful smelling leaves as well as flowers. They are not terribly expensive, and can be raised from seed in a moist, covered container starting in January or February. They can do well inside as a houseplant with just some good sunlight and light watering. Sometimes they can have a tendency to overflower - using up their energies all at once, but the extra flower stems can be gently pruned back without harming the plant. It is best to allow only a few flower clusters to bloom at once unless you have a very good supply of fertilized soil to the plant.

The type of Geraniums you would find being sold at plant stores are also called 'Pelargonium', to determine them from wilder cousins. Here is a wonderful site with many beautiful pictures of different breeds of geraniums. I think most of these were grown and photographed by just one guy. It's apparent some people REALLY love geraniums more than I do, but the pictures are gorgeous. Also - be sure to check out his greenhouse picture just for the sheer magnitude of it.


This one in particular looks like a little bonsai tree!
It's going to need some care and a tiny bit of pruning here and there,
but it should live for up to a year or more, producing pretty flowers and outgrowing this pot at least once.

Astounding Science Fiction Collection

This is Mark's collection of Astounding science fiction magazines, later known as the SF magazine Analog, which is still in publication today. He has magazines from as early as 1939 in this collection, many of them full years, right up until the 1990s. We moved and reorganized these magazines during the last week - putting some duplicates and oddballs up on Ebay at our store.

The Analog magazine published early stories and serials by well-known SF authors such as Theodore Sturgeon, Philip K. Dick, Harry Harrison, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Larry Niven, Robert Silverberg, Poul Anderson - and many more. There were also countless authors that never made it to the level of 'household names' as some of those just mentioned - but are also part of the history of early science fiction. I liked Mark's quote that these short stories are similar to a 'short course in the golden age of Science Fiction.' The magazine also did (and still does) publish fact science and technology articles.

More on the Astounding/Analog magazine publication from Wikipedia.


Close-up - they aren't in perfect condition but each copy is readable.


An old ad inside the cover of one that caught my interest. The year was 1939.


Another old ad from the back of a 1941 copy

Flea Market finds (and some knitting does occurr)

We found a steal at the flea market - an antique Singer sewing machine for such a small price, we had to scoop it up. It seems to work, too! The one thing we are having difficulty with is winding a new bobbin -- the instructions are wadded up and falling apart -- and this bobbin winder seems different than many of the ones we are looking at on the Internet. It is a 27-4 Singer according to the manual. We looked up the serial number (beginning with 'B') on the Singer website and it says this particular machine was made in 1904. However, since it has been refurbished, it might contain parts of several different models -- we're just not sure.


I play with the bobbin winder some.

A close-up of the winder in question.


There were also very good-smelling strawberries at the flea market!


Some knitting does still occurr here...
A *secret mystery project* (No guessing!) started out of fine white wool.

article on indian corn

Of DST and other woes...

We didn't have that much worry about Daylight Savings Time here - even with all the computers, servers and other time-oriented things. Mark spent that morning doing some clever fixes with zone info files. However, it is time for the puppy to make her visit to the vet - for her surgery. I'll be calling them later on today - poor Puck!


Puck helping out with the garden the other day

Neat site found while browsing:

Schmidling.com: This guy has done amazing things with spinning and weaving. He spun and wove fabric to cut and sew his own shirt, and several other pieces of clothing. Not to mention his pages on astronomy, ham radio, silversmithing, gem grinding... just a total geek renaissance man. Check out all his pages and be amazed!

Also check out Chris' But since I wasn't blogging then contest. I reallly do regret not having a day by day entry of when the girls (Sally and Willowpede) were tiny kittens and just coming home for the first time. That was during a hiatus in my blogging. I still miss them terribly - Mouse reminds me so much of Sally that I've woken up in the night having to figure out exactly which cat is purring and pawing at me. *sigh*

Wool Bird Pincushions

Currently at the shop:

Wool felt version of bird pincushion

New design: owl pincushion (wool felt)

I spent the weekend playing with the bag of wool felt that came in the mail last week. We've also been going through stacks of books, and clearing up more old equipment to sort. Mark turned over the garden with the backhoe and we will have to get some plants and seeds. I have a bag of blue iris bulbs we can find a place for out in the yard soon :o)